This is K.M. Ireland and you are listening to the four hundred 11th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast. I hope those of you here in the US enjoyed a lovely

Thanksgiving last week and I hope those of you outside of the US have a lovely day too.

As always this time of year makes me stop and think about many things I have to be

thankful for and at the top of the list are all of you so once again

this year thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to listen to the

podcast and read the blog and books and thanks to those of you who have

taken a moment this year to drop me one of many kind notes. It's great to hear you

enjoying the podcast and finding it useful. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas

and New Year and I hope you write many wonderful new stories in the coming year. And now I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast, Part 17 of the do's and don'ts of storytelling

according to Marvel.

How to write funny.

If you ask me, the trifecta of must have story elements

are relationships, action, and humor.

Of the three, arguably the most difficult is learning how to write funny.

You can't fake humor. It either works or it doesn't.

This might prompt some writers to avoid it out of insecurity with their ability to pull it off.

But don't do that either.

Well executed humor won't just make your story more entertaining.

It will also offer the ability to bring greater depth to almost every other

aspect of your story including character, theme, and even plot. Why is this? Because

good humor is true humor and when it's true it heightens every

part of your story. Even the darkest story can benefit from not just humor itself but an underlying understanding of

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